Celebrations of birth, marriage, and God's creation

Only a day later and I'm blogging again. Too much excitement on the weekends, I just can't help it. Saturday afternoon we went to Marga's birthday party. Incase you didn't make the connection, Marga is our empleada (maid). In the picture to the left you can see the Peruvian tradition- The birthday person is supposed to take a bite out of their cake but usually someone stuffs it in their face. Here, Marga politely denies the cake in her face.

Being stuck in a house for 2 days with only English being spoken made it a bit tough to have conversations with the adults since I wasn't in "Spanish mode" as I call it. So, I tagged along with the little girl in the top of the picture who kept taking pictures with my camera. We walked around outside and Marga's daughter came along too with their puppy. They live a bit more in the 'campo', or country, so it was beautiful to be outside. Kids are more willing to teach you Spanish and usually the conversations are pretty surface level, so I enjoyed talking with the two girls.

Later that evening we went to a wedding for two people from the large Mennonite church in San Jeranimo (a town 5 minutes from my house in Larapa). The invitation says it would start promptly at 6pm but Peruvians know better than to be there exactly at 6 unless they want to chat for a couple hours. The wedding began at 7:20 and it was much like an American wedding except in the beginning when there was some worship dancing done by a dance team of 5 people. It was really neat. Also, rather than having a maid of honor and best man, they have 'padrinos' which serve kind of as those positions as well as spiritual support and they buy the wedding rings for the newlyweds. Ron and Regina Shultz were their padrinos you can see in the picture below.

I was told it was very 'upper class'. There was no 'I do' as far as I could tell, but they did have a nice little speech to give to their future husband/wife. As a side note, fiancée and girlfriend are the same word in Spanish so when I explain my last name, it may not be understood as well. I'm glad my last name is not McGirlfriend though. That would have taken longer to learn to spell in Kindergarten. So the wedding reception was pretty much the same, even if it did start more than an hour later than the invitations said. The reception itself was pretty similar as well but instead of just catching a bouquet, there's also a part where the women pull a ribbon from a glass and whoever ends up with a ring on the end 'wins' although, I'm not sure what all entails with 'winning'. The reception hall was shaped like a C and I was on the other side of the wall so I didn't know everything that was going on. Dinner did not come out until midnight but I didn't mind waiting because from eating all the junk at our Anne of Green Gables party, my stomach still hurt. As our party favors, we recieved light-up dolphin decoration things. You can see Carrie and Oriana Kreider amazed by the excitement of our new toy, as well as our huge plate of food. We left pretty shortly after that and everyone was exhausted. We heard the party ended around 3:30am.

Today we went to church and then had lunch at this outside restaurant that was so wonderful, making me feel like I was on vacation in the summertime. We came home to take a nap and after a big storm passed, we went for a hike. It was beautiful, even if it was the most muddy walk I've ever taken. I didn't realize there was such beauty hidden close to my house. I need to take more walks. Carleta went with us. We've spent everyday this weekend with her. I'm pretty sure you'll be hearing about her more often. She's a lot of fun.
I thought this dog was absolutely adorable and as soon as I tried to take a picture, he went nuts. He looks like a raccoon in the photo.

Praises: Awesome weekend, able to experience more of the culture, see God's creation, and make better connections with missionaries and Peruvians.

Prayer Request: That our chickens would stay safe- We found one killed this morning and we think it was a cat or a rat who must have been fat and sat on it's head. I should make it into a poem.
I would be more self-disciplined about learning Spanish on my own.
All teachers would be motivated to plan and decorate for school since we only have one week left.

Call me Anne with an 'e'

This past week we started teacher in-service days to perpare us for school. I met the Peruvian teachers that will be teaching each grade and then I already knew my two roommates who are the other 2 English teachers. In the photo, the two women on the right are the teachers I'll be working with. The lower one is teaching second grade and the one above her is teaching first grade. The second grade teacher is very willing to learn English and knows quite a bit already so it is fun when we get together because she doesn't mind working through the language barrier.

Thursday and Friday we had Paros, or strikes, again. The region was protesting a law that was recently passed allowing hotels and restaurants to build right next to sacred ruins and archeological sites. That meant that we had no teacher meetings and the three of us stuck around the house preparing for the school year that begins March 3rd for a couple days. Friday night we had an Anne of Green Gables night with the missionary girls, young and old (well, not old, but moms). Taxis were around so everyone was able to get to our house around 6 and we began with 'Ann of Green Gables desserts' and the finding of the perfect hat for the movie. Carrie is nicknamed "The Hat Queen" and so she brought down her probably 20 something hats so we could all feel part of the movie. I've seen Anne of Green Gables once in my life whereas everyone else has read the book or seen the movies numerous times so they were all very excited for this evening. After we picked our hats and had our plates full, we started the movie. When the first movie ended, the younger girls left with the moms. Destiny (15), Hannah (12), Carleta (a missionary here through Wycliff), and the three of us were left to watch the rest of the 4 hours. Destiny and Hannah slept over and we had a really great time.







Today we're going to Marga's to celebrate her birthday and then this evening off to my first Peruvian wedding. It's more Americanized with actual invitations and who knows what else but I'm sure it will still be different than what I'm used to. More on that later!

Chirp Chirp Chirp

So we've had fleas, problem solved. Then we had mice, problem solved (we think). Now, we have baby chickens. This time we WANT the little animals. We had a chicken coop already made in our yard when we moved in so we knew we needed to get chickens so we can have fresh eggs everyday. They're only 3 weeks old so they still chirp. They're so adorable. Some let me pet them but others run around in circles to get away. We bought 8 and we decided we're going to name them all "Chicken" only in 8 different languages. We've got English, Spanish, Quechua, Pennsylvania Dutch, Albanian, and German so far. At this age, it's probable that some could die so we make sure to put them in a little box with holes at night so that they can cuddle and stay warm. You'll be getting updates when they're all grown. I don't know how long that will take. I'm learning many things here. We also started a tiny vegetable garden that's right outside of the coop so sometimes the chickens get loose and have a field day eating veggies.

Buying the chickens was fun. We were a little confused how to find the market and then we we did, it started pouring rain. One of the tarps was full of water and when I walked in, it dumped right on my head. Then the rain got harder and the wind grew stronger and everyone frantically covered their animals with tarps or stuck them in crates. My pants got soaked as well as my head previously been dumped on. It got quite cold. It was total opposite of the morning though because we had gone shopping and it was sunny and hot out. Then the clouds rolled in and changed the rest of the day. That's what the rainy season's all about I guess. Check out the video of the storm in the little animal market. Reminder, double click on the play button. The chirping you can hear is the same chirp in my backyard. Quite cute.

Language classes ended yesterday. I'ts 9:00am and I'm in my pajamas still. First time since I got here. I'm now able to focus on planning for the school year but I have to discipline myself to study Spanish as well. My teacher is going to tutor me once a week in the evening and I hope to find a college student at the University down the street and we can help each other learn our native tongues. Yesterday after lunch I was talking to Bethany and made a completely correct sentence in Spanish and Marga says to me in Spanish, "You're Spanish is getting better." and I'm all excited and thankful and then she goes "I can actually understand you." It was really funny. A compliment and insult in one. I'm still laughing about that. God has helped my ears open and I can understand more of Spanish now which has been my prayer for the last week. Almost every night, Bethany, Carrie, and I pray together and if you can believe it, which I hope you can, God has answered EVERY prayer we have prayed. Not only has He answered them, but things turn out better than we could have imagined. Prayer is so powerful and it's really building our faith seeing how things turn out better than we expected and we know it has to be God.

Tomorrow begins me being an official teacher. We're going to be meeting all of the Peruvian teachers, I know 3 of them already, and we'll just have a day to get to know each other. Monday we start in-service stuff and we'll be having Peruvian speakers come to teach us how to be better teachers. Prayer is definitely needed that I won't be overwhelmed since this will all be in Spanish. The other part of our morning we'll be planning for the school year.

Random side note. Last Friday I used my credit card (from EMM that has my budget's money on it) and Monday when I went to look for it in my bag, all my cash was there, but no credit card. I figured it's ok because I still have my personal credit card so I can use that until the other one comes in. So, I use the personal credit card on Wednesday morning and I went to look for it Thursday night and again, cash was there, but no credit card. Two credit cards in one week but whoever is taking them, isn't stealing my money which makes me think I'm going crazy and just misplacing the credit cards. But I was very aware of this last one and I know I didn't misplace it. So, we cancelled both credit cards and I'll be borrowing from my roommates for a month it seems. Other than that, things are going well and I'm excited for school to start. My friend Steve from Millersville is coming for two weeks in the end of March to help with construction and any ministry stuff he can get himself into so I'm excited to have my first visitor!

Peruvian Snowday

We were warned on Tuesday that there would be a 'paro' or strike/protest on Thursday which means no public transportation or most stores open between 9am and 4pm. The strike was for the cost of living- that prices can't be raised anymore. There was a chance that transportation really would not happen at all in the morning, even before 9. My spanish school told us that there would be no classes on Thursday but Heather, the other student in my class, would be leaving Friday morning to Bolivia and already missing one day was too many. Maria, my teacher, Heather, and I decided to tough it out and have class anyway, even if it meant taking an expensive taxi or walking all the way to school. I left at 6:30am (as opposed to my normal 8:15am) hearing nothing but dogs barking. Usually there's vans driving constantly since two of the convey systems begin/end just down the road from me, about a 45 second walk downhill, 2 minutes uphill. The silence was my answer to how I'd be getting to school. I started off down the hill, a woman passing me in spandex and a backpack, jogging down the road. This is unusual. I didn't even know Qusquenans wore spandex. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to school but how fun it was.
There were a few taxis driving by but everyone was desperate for a taxi and instead of standing at the window and asking how much, they dove in before others beat them to it. I was not about to join in this chaos. I also passed a huuuge pickup truck that again, people charged and dove in to get a ride, all squished, some people hanging off. As they kept driving, the road was blocked by small rocks in a line and they were forced to turn on the other side of the road where lo and behold, was where all the taxi drivers who weren't driving that day were parked, hanging out with one another. When they saw the load of people, they ran with a huge bucket of water and splashed everyone on that side of the truck. I have a picture of the taxi drivers after they splashed the truck.

Kids were playing volleyball and soccer in the street. As I entered the main street of the city, I finally saw people protesting with flags and a loud speaker. I arrived at school an hour late. I was saying to Maria that we don't have these sort of strikes in the States but my whole time walking to school, it reminded me of a snowday with kids playing in the streets and most businesses not opening. I found out when I came home that missionaries actually call 'paros' Peruvian snowdays so it must be true that this is a Peruvian snowday. After class, Maria took us to the Plaza de Armas, the main town square. It was completely filled with spectators and picketers (sp?). They were burning a tire and I saw one man was almost attacked but the police that were everywhere protected him. That was the extent of the violence though. In Cusco, it's peaceful but in Lima and some other parts of Peru, there is a lot of violence. I was lucky to be in the middle of a paro and not be afraid for my life. Maria said the man who was almost attacked was probably part of the government. Next, we headed to a store where Maria's daughter works and then headed to find a place open to eat lunch. There was no way I was walking home after walking all morning so I knew I'd be in the city till 4 when transportation started up again. Heather left us before lunch, my last time seeing her until I make a trip out to Seattle to visit her sometime. She was my first friend here in Peru, but fortunately, not my last. After lunch, we headed to Maria's friends house where she works/lives 3 months of the year. She works for a millionaire whose from Spain and is aging quite a bit so needs some help at home. They were very hospitable and helpful to translate when I didn't understand what was going on. At four, Maria and I headed home to catch a convey. It took a while to find some means of transportation, but on the way I helped Maria practice her English and then we switched back to Spanglish when English became too hard for her. We had a long and exhausting day but one where I really got to know Maria very well and I know it's a day I'll remember for years to come.

Below is a video. Double click on the bottom left triangle.

Adventures Are Fun

First of all, for those of you who don't know Spanish, my blog title translates to mean "My adventures with the Lord". Secondly, today I learned a lot of new words. 'Arana', 'viuda negra', and 'scorpiones' which translate to mean 'spider', black widow', and 'scorpions'. I learned those words after I found each of those poisonous/deadly creatures. I went to a church in a town called Huacarpay and the pastor had us over for lunch (Bethany, the Shultz', and a group of people from a church in Lancaster who are here for a week to help build Promesa because there is lots to be done before school starts in one month exactly). We went for a hike across the street to some Incan ruins and I wasn't expecting much but Jeremiah Shultz was up ahead and found scorpians, caught them in a soda bottle, made them fight, and they all were dead in the bottle by the time we found them. That was the beginning of what I realized would be a bit of an adventure. In my Sunday Best I hiked up to the ruins, took some pictures, and started kicking under rocks to find more scorpions. I found a really huge black spider and yelled for Jeremiah to come over and see. He informed me that it was a black widow and I doubted him because I saw no red hourglass on it's back. I then found out that it's on it's belly as Jeremiah's friends started touching it with a stick. My oh my, we probably saw about 10 more black widows without flipping over many more rocks. I found a new scorpion but the thrill seemed to be the deadly black widows. As we kept walking, we found so many huge (harmless) colorful spiders and one ended up on my leg!!! I screamed, swatted it off, and jumped around a bit, screaming more. It was only a white one, but it was huge. Everyone was paranoid and there were a couple more screaming fits made by the rest of the women and girls, but we all left the ruins alive without poison running through our bodies. I had no idea we had these scary creatures around but really they're just in the rural parts. You'd consider me more in the 'suburban' area. Yeah, if you get a chance, remember to pray for me that no black widows end up biting me while in Peru! Also, if you want to get a better view of the picture, just click on it and it should take up the whole screen. To go back to the blog, click back with the arrows up to your left.

So as for other adventures with God's tiny creatures. We have mice! Bethany and I have tried to catch them with no luck (Double click on the play button below the picture to watch a video of one of our attempts) and then we tried mouse poison but those cute little critters are still alive!



Friday night we were coming home from making pottery when it started pouring rain, so off we went running up our hill, into our house. The storm was awesome. There was a bright flash, a very loud boom, and suddenly, not only did the bright flash go away, but so did all the lights. I was worried we wouldn't have electricity for a long time considering we're in a 3rd world country but 10 minutes later, there was light. The next day we woke up with no water running, which was the 2nd time since moving to Cusco, but this time, the water didn't come on all day. Still not sure why but maybe because of the black out the night before. We entertained 3 people for lunch, hoping they wouldn't use our bathrooms and thank God, it started pouring again. We ran out with buckets and filled them up quickly so we could flush our toilets with dirty rain water, but water the same. We then entertained about 15 other people that night, cooking mini pizzas and roasting hotdogs and s'mores on the fire, again, no running water but at least there was the rain water. We had a good time with the youth from the church in San Jeronimo. They asked me how I say 'hot dog' in English and when I said "hot dog, which would be perro caliente in spanish" they cracked up so much that I felt I should be a little offended for my language, but it was still funny. It was their first time having s'mores also so they enjoyed those and I'm sure it's not our last time roasting marshmallows with them.

So, as I said, Adventures are fun. Between poisonous creatures, cute mice running around the house, and entertaining about 20 people on a day we didn't have running water, things have been quite exciting here this past week! Hope you enjoy the pictures and video.

On a more normal and not thrilling note, I've been taking Spanish classes the past week and learning many words. Some days I'm able to come home and talk up a storm but then others, it's almost the last thing I feel like doing. I'm still adjusting being here, needing a nap everyday or I'm almost useless in class the next day, yawning every 2 minutes, and their coffee doesn't seem to do anything for me. I'll be taking Spanish classes for the next 2 weeks as well so please pray that God would continue to help me learn the language easily because that prayer is so important right now.

This weekend was the beginning of Carnival which is some festival that I'm still not familiar with but all I understand is that kids are supposed to throw water balloons or spray you with foam on the streets. Really, you can't take offense because it's just the way it is here. Gringos are more of a target from what I hear but that's not what I observed. I had been indirectly sprayed with foam earlier in the week and this weekend, as a convey (van) passed by, Carrie, Bethany and I were sprayed while we walked along the road by kids in the convey. Today on the way home from our adventures in the ruins, Bethany and I walked up the road to our house and were pelted with water balloons, one hitting Bethany right in the eye and she saw double vision for most of the afternoon. Things have been quite an adventure! What an appropriate title!

Prayers:
Ease in language learning
Safety
Continue to understand the Cuscanian/Peruvian culture

Praises:
I'm no longer overwhelmed by this new culture and language!!
God is good, even if things aren't going well.